ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday to discuss legislation that would put a cannabis legalization question before the voters in November. Lawmakers will hear testimony in support of HB 1264, introduced by Del. David Moon, by Kate Bell of the Marijuana Policy Project and other representatives of the Maryland Cannabis Policy Coalition. The hearing will take place in the Judiciary Committee Hearing Room in the Lowe House of Delegates Office Building in Annapolis at 1 p.m. ET.

If approved by 60% of both chambers of the Maryland Legislature, the bill would place a constitutional amendment on the November 2018 ballot that would make possession and home cultivation of limited amounts of cannabis legal for adults 21 years of age and older and require the state to establish regulations and taxation for a legal cannabis market. The bill to refer the issue to the voters could not be vetoed by the governor.

It would direct the General Assembly to pass legislation in 2019 to implement the amendment and direct the comptroller to regulate the production, processing, testing, and sale of cannabis. The regulations would be required to ensure diversity in cannabis business licensees, protect consumers through tracking, testing, and labeling of cannabis products, and allow local governments to control the number of cannabis businesses in their jurisdictions and determine whether to allow limited on-site social consumption. It would remain illegal to consume cannabis in public or drive under the influence.

“Despite having decriminalized marijuana in 2014, Maryland is still prosecuting well over 4,000 people a year — disproportionally people of color — for nothing more than possessing a substance that is safer than alcohol,” said Kate Bell, legislative counsel for the Marijuana Policy Project. “There is a better path, which Washington and Colorado forged five years ago and six more states are now pursuing. We can successfully take cannabis out of the criminal market, where profits go to gangs and violent cartels, and put it in the hands of taxed, regulated businesses. A majority of Maryland voters support making marijuana legal for adults. It is time for Maryland lawmakers to let their constituents weigh in on this important issue.”

Sixty-four percent of likely Maryland voters support making cannabis legal for adults, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland Poll conducted in September 2016.

Kaya Farms Opens Jamaica's First Legal Medical Cannabis Facility

Kaya Farms, home to Jamaica's first legal medical cannabis dispensary, celebrated its grand opening on Saturday at Drax Hall, St Ann, with an official ribbon-cutting and concert featuring some of Jamaica's favourite reggae artistes.

Kaya Farms and sister companies, Kaya Herbhouse, Kaya Spa, Kaya Cafe and Kaya Tours offer a variety of services for Jamaicans and tourists, including the sale of marijuana for medicinal and therapeutic purposes. The grand opening of Kaya, said the owners, is considered to be a momentous occasion for Jamaica and the economy

“It has been an arduous journey for all involved in making this dream a reality. We cannot forget the Indians who brought the plant, the Rastafarians that fought to advocate it, University of Technology, Government officials on both sides and corporate Jamaica that have all helped to steer this through the political landscape. It is an exciting step for me and the country as we move forward to build an industry which I am sure that we be side by side the Canadians, British and the United States. I'm sure as Jamaican farmers we can compete internationally as ganja becomes a commodity,” said chairman and chief ganja officer, Balram Vaswani.

Nevada is Breaking Cannabis Sales Records, Including $30 Million in Taxes for the State

Nevada’s recreational marijuana market is blooming ahead of expectations with retailers there selling close to $200M of cannabis between July and December of 2017. That’s significantly quicker growth than Washington state and Colorado, which sold $67M and $114M respectively in their first six months of legal adult use cannabis sales.

The state of Nevada has collected more than $30M in taxes from the market in its first six months.

In the past week, workers were accused of forging signatures on Utah petitions for medical marijuana, new legislative proposals were introduced for legal marijuana in New Jersey, legal “sanctuary” status was considered in several states for licensed businesses to protect the nascent industry from a federal crackdown and more.

A man and woman working for a Utah-based company to collect signatures for statewide ballot initiatives have been accused of forging names on the documents. Charges have been filed after a Weber County election clerk discovered the apparent forgeries when comparing signatures on petitions for the Utah Medical Cannabis and Count My Vote Ballot initiatives to the voter roll, finding a combined 472 forged signatures in the 16 packets the pair submitted. Read more

New Jersey Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Union) will propose three bills aimed at social justice and economic opportunities should the state legalize adult-use cannabis. The bills will focus on the expungement of cannabis possession convictions, creating a tax credit program for cannabis businesses in urban enterprise zones and establishing an advisory board focused on recommendations for drug-sniffing dogs in the event of cannabis legalization. Read more

Some states that have legalized marijuana are considering providing “sanctuary” status for licensed cannabis businesses, hoping to protect the fledgling industry from a shift in federal enforcement policy. Berkeley, Calif., was already the first city in the nation to formally declare itself a sanctuary city on immigration, barring city officials from cooperating with federal authorities, and last month, it did the same with marijuana. Read more

A hearing on Florida banning smokable forms of medical marijuana will be heard by a circuit court judge on May 16. Leon County, Fla., Judge Karen Gievers will hold a non-jury trial to determine if the ban violates the 2016 state constitutional amendment that legalized medical cannabis. Read more

An Idaho Senate Committee Chairman, Sen. Lee Heider (R-Twin Falls), apologized March 6 for violating Senate rules a day earlier by convening an impromptu—and likely illegal—closed meeting of his committee over a move to force a hearing on House-passed legislation to legalize the medical use of CBD oil in the state. Sen. Heider also informed his committee that a vote taken March 5 to kill the bill wasn’t valid because the bill wasn’t on the committee’s agenda. Read more

Massachusetts’ Cannabis Control Commission voted unanimously to accept the rules that will govern the new legal industry, with four key changes made to the regulations since they were initially approved last December, including no social consumption or home delivery. The commission will begin accepting applications for licenses to operate cannabis businesses on April 1. Read more

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) has temporarily suspended its policy that marijuana licensees must observe a 24-hour quarantine before transferring their product to other licensees in order to alleviate difficulties in transferring product as the WSLCB works to implement its new state traceability system. The WSLCB will assess the need for the quarantine period in the coming months as it adjusts to the new system. Read more

West Virginia’s Senate Judiciary Committee made major changes to a medical marijuana bill that came out of the House of Delegates. Most notable is a section allowing the state medical marijuana advisory board to create rules to allow smoking of cannabis as a means of treatment, as the original medical marijuana bill did not allow smoking when it was approved by the legislature last year. Read more

Indiana lawmakers appear poised to allow Hoosiers to buy and sell CBD oil, but it is uncertain whether local companies will actually be able to manufacture the cannabis extract. House Bill 1214 and Senate Bill 52 passed out of both chambers legalizing the sale, possession and manufacturing of CBD oil if it contains less than .3 percent THC and is labeled correctly, but lawmakers are now backtracking after Gov. Eric Holcomb told legislative leaders that he didn’t want manufacturing to be legalized. Read more

A bill to legalize medical marijuana in Kentucky was shelved March 7 after it ran into strong opposition from law enforcement officials during a round of testimony before a legislative panel. Comments from the law enforcement officials and a Warren County prosecutor warned that legalization could exacerbate Kentucky’s drug addiction woes. Read more

This article originally appeared in the February 2018 issue of Cannabis Dispensary. To subscribe, click here.

Being an entrepreneur certainly has its perks. For one, it occasionally allows you the opportunity to creatively align your interests together into one business. For Neil Demers, the CEO of the Colorado-based dispensary Diego Pellicer, this meant that his shared passion for cannabis and the arts could combine to bring two communities together at the company’s Denver location.

By taking an artistic approach to the design and business model of the dispensary, Demers was able to move away from stereotypical visions of what a cannabis retailer might look like and include in its product offering.

“We found that customers are asking for a more comfortable and familiar shopping experience,” Demers says. He wanted to stand out by making Diego Pellicer an inviting and engaging place, and offer other ancillary purchase opportunities that spanned beyond clothing and accessories.

Commissioning an Artist, and Much More

Diego Pellicer is in a middle- to lower-class area of Denver, and buildings frequently fall victim to graffiti. Before its opening in February 2017, Diego Pellicer’s building boasted a massive wall on one of its sides, which made it vulnerable for tagging. Demers came up with a proactive idea to utilize the space creatively, but he needed a little help.

To read the full article in Cannabis Dispensary's February 2018 issue, click here.